Saturday, January 14, 2012

Mormons want variances to construct church

Community Board 7 roundly rejected plans Monday night from the Mormon church to build a two-story chapel on 33rd Avenue that required exemptions from zoning laws.

In an acrimonious meeting that lasted well past 11 p.m., the board unanimously voted to turn down the plans for the 23,097-square-foot chapel, complete with a steeple reaching nearly 100 feet high, which requires at least three variances to allow it to legally exceed local zoning laws.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was also required to submit separate plans for a church it could build according to zoning laws, but parishioners and clergy said it would be too small.

Instead, the proposed building, at 145-13 33rd Ave., would require three variances, although the community board said architects overlooked a few others.

The first variance would allow the chapel to have double the square footage currently allowed by law. In this case, it basically means the church wants to put a second story on its chapel where one would not normally be allowed.

The other two variances involve the steepness of a driveway into the chapel’s underground parking garage for 55 cars, and the fact that the top of the garage would stick out about a foot above normal ground level and create a sort of “deck” slightly above adjoining properties.

19 comments:

They want double the FAR allowed in an R2A district.The Community Facilities law already gives them a huge bonus in an R2A district, yet here they are wanting yet more!Couldn't they have waited for Mitt to become President first?

The same question I have for commercial developers: "Why did you buy the property in the first place, when you knew its zoning would not permit you to build what you wanted to build"-----------------------------------------------------Mormons? Oops. I read morons. My bad. LOL!

This crap will get swallowed the same way everything else does in this neighborhood. 33rd Ave is not a commercial strip but please lets put a 55 car garage and a large church right next to houses. Why not just move it Northern where developments this size belong? Oh the "church" got it cheap? Yeah figure that...

Plus the Mormons solicited the sale of the two houses whose lots they are using from long time Flushing residents who had not otherwise planned to sell or move (and who maintained their pretty properties more neatly than any of their new neighbors) and then took forever to finish tearing down the houses after starting (leaving them in an open and vacant condition) and then left the properties as ill-maintained garbage-strewn lots for about 2 years, with falling down fences until they were forced to put up a chain link fence. The properties have been an eyesore (and a dustbowl, that turns into a mudbowl during rains, flooding the sidewalk) since they have been acquired. That poor block already suffers from the traffic from St. Paul's and its credit union (that has been robbed several times and now has armored car pickups about three times a week).

Really, what is the point of zoning and designated "residential" areas if you can have what are essentially, heavily-trafficked, huge, 24 hour unregulated businesses? Put a cross on it (or down the block, a crescent) and there are no rules and the neighbors get no sleep?

There is also another huge project going on just north of this project on 32nd Avenue (and what looks like an illegal project just down the block on 33rd Avenue between Parsons Blvd and Union St where Julia Harrison's office used to be a hundred years ago . . .).

It used to be a nice, quiet, tree-lined residential neighborhood, but now everyone that can get out, is.

Spotted a piece of Queens Crap in your community?

Please note

Italicized passages and many of the photos come from other websites. The links to these websites are provided within the posts.

Why your neighborhood is full of Queens Crap

"The difference between dishonest and honest graft: for dishonest graft one worked solely for one's own interests, while for honest graft one pursued the interests of one's party, one's state, and one's personal interests all together." - George Washington Plunkitt

Sites that kick ass:

The above organizations are recognized by Queens Crap as being beneficial to the city as a whole, by fighting to preserve the history and character of our neighborhoods. They are not connected to this website and the opinions presented here do not necessarily represent the positions of these organizations.

The comments left by posters to this site do not necessarily represent the views of the blogger or webmaster.